Germany: representation and investment for your hotel

Spaniards are travelling to Germany more and more and are discovering the many charms that this country offers beyond its dazzling, cosmopolitan capital city, Berlin. This has led to the importance of having representation in this city, a representative who helps with the hiring of tour operators and travel agencies, thus contributing to increasing sales through these distribution channels.

An example of this is the “Germany Travel Mart -GTM,” the principal B2B workshop for inbound tourism to Germany. This year, in barely three days, it mobilised 500 international buyers, including tour operators and travel agencies, who are interested in marketing trips to destinations in Germany. On the offer side, there were nearly 330 German exhibitors, including airlines such as Lufthansa and Germania, the German railway company Deutsche Bahn, hotel chains, regional and city tourism offices, restaurants, and more; all of them willing to display their novelties and do business. Another sign of the interest this destination sparks is the incorporation of new companies into the Spanish delegation.

Promotion of tourism products

All strategies aimed at promoting a tourist destination must work towards the objective of creating a satisfactory experience for the traveller that reinforces their emotional ties to the destination and thus favours recommendation. However, greater efforts must now be made. We must get out of the comfortable position of simply offering the destination and open up to offering the range of possibilities that the user has when they come to us.

The development of new technology has made it so the users are the main protagonists before, during, and after going on the trip. The three stages are fundamental when it comes to promoting a destination.

When we talk about the importance of new technology applied to tourism, we are not only talking about providing connectivity to the traveller, but rather about being facilitators of information, quality content, good platform usability, and a presence that goes beyond the usual social media tools, but is also present in specific hubs that favour interaction.

Promotión + Marketing of a destination

Destinations have to develop 360-degree promotion and marketing actions which include visibility on several channels and specific campaigns aimed at various profiles of the target audience (travel agencies, media, influencers, and the end audience – potential tourists).

The majority of tourist destinations’ strategies focus only on promotion. They invest a large part of their budget in offline campaigns and some even include well-structured social media strategies, but they make the mistake of not offering an open market that one can book through. That’s to say, they carry out the promotion phase, but forget about the marketing phase.

This is a mistake, given that a tourist destination’s strategy must be focused on being present in the 5 stages of a trip. In other words, the destination has to be able to inspire and allow for planning, but also allow for booking, facilitate enjoyment once at the destination, and afterwards, dissemination of the experience.

The majority of tourist destinations only focus on the first two stages: inspiration and planning. Experiential or emotional marketing is becoming more and more useful for implementing actions aimed at potential tourists in their markets of origin. It is important to carry out campaigns that have an effect on potential clients and help us create an emotional bond with them. An example is the campaign carried out by Hawaiian Airlines, in which they recreated a beach in the middle of a city in the North of the United States in the height of winter, generating interest in taking a getaway to a tropical destination.

At IHCS, we can help you manage and promote your hotel in the right destination. Don’t hesitate to get in touch!